A selection of works by NOPD homicide detective turned artist Charlie Hoffacker goes on display Saturday (July 26) at Hyph3n-Art gallery in the Marigny neighborhood. It's a chance for the public to meet New Orleans' most electrifying conceptualist.

Public reaction to Hoffacker's edgy artwork became even more acute when he was coincidentally taken off of street duty and assigned to a desk job in the aftermath of an alleged crime scene incident. As reported by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune in June, Hoffacker was searching for bullet fragments in a victim's coagulated blood, according to a source close to the detective. Then he wiped his bloody hands off on the sidewalk, the source said, spelling the word "help."

On Friday (July 18), a week before the show, Hoffacker and gallery owner Carly Hammond welcomed visitors to watch them produce one of his new series of woodblock prints that depict an AK-47 assault rifle strung with Mardi Gras beads. The prints are based on earlier paintings that will also appear in the show. They are a combination of metallic gunmetal gray and scarlet. The yard-long printing block allows the guns to be life size.

Hoffacker explained that AK-47s, called "choppers" and other things, are prized in the Crescent City underworld for their killing power.

"This particular gun, the reason I chose it in the initial paintings, was because this is a highly sought-after rifle in the streets," Hoffacker said.

By depicting the sinister machine gun strung with the coveted plastic beads thrown from Carnival floats, he had produced a mixed symbol that beautifully defines a New Orleans dichotomy.

"In a nutshell it's about the duality of the culture here in New Orleans," Hoffacker said. "It's the violence that we are trying to avoid through partying and having a good time."

Though the weapons used in the stunning June Bourbon Street shootings, were not assault rifles, Hoffacker's gun/bead images were bitterly prescient, since they cause the Crescent City spheres of celebration and violence to collide.

"It's kind of a special piece," Hoffacker said. "I found — since I've done (previous) variations of the piece — that you either love it or you hate it. There aren't too many people who are just in the middle. Some people find this piece pretty offensive, which, quite honestly, I'm glad if they find the idea offensive because they should find the idea offensive. It's a horrible thing that's happening to our city, this violence.

"If you find it offensive, excellent but let's deal with the problem, let's start talking about it."

The simple, efficient printmaking method is as important as the image. Since Ak-47s and Mardi Gras beads are both mass produced and widely distributed, it was only right that Hoffacker mass produce a series of prints for public consumption. His art perfectly echoes the subject.

Watching Hoffacker work on Friday night was like watching a tightrope walker as he balanced the restrictions of his career as a cop with his compulsion to create polemical artwork. The conversation during the printmaking demonstration made it as penetrating an artistic performance as any, anywhere.

Hoffacker's Hyph3n-Art exhibit titled "Mass Casually" will also include a series of artworks in which Hoffacker views the tragedy of gangland violence through the lens of Catholic religious iconography.

He promises a disconcerting gangster version of Michelangelo's Pieta that he has never displayed publically and a sadly ironic reliquary devoted to the failed dream of the gangster lifestyle.